Friday, May 24, 2013

It has been rather a disappointing year for dystopian. These two books which focussed on gender roles in a futuristic world has an interesting idea but failed to impressed me in the end.

Swans and Klons
by Nora Olsen
Published May 14th 2013
by Bold Strokes Books
ARC from Netgalley

Summary from Goodreads:

What does it take to survive in a world built on lies?
Sixteen-year-old Rubric loves her pampered life in the Academy dormitory. She’s dating Salmon Jo, a brilliant and unpredictable girl. In their all-female world, non-human slaves called Klons do all the work. But when Rubric and Salmon Jo break into the laboratory where human and Klon babies are grown in vats, they uncover a terrifying secret that tears their idyllic world apart.

Their friends won’t believe them, and their teachers won’t help them. The Doctors who rule Society want to silence Rubric and Salmon Jo. The two girls must flee for their lives. As they face the unthinkable, the only thing they have left to believe in is their love for each other.

Thoughts:
Swans and Klons appeared to be such a promising book with its unique take on a dystopian world where all the inhabitants are female and humans live alongside with clones. At first, I was really drawn to the story but my interest quickly faded as there are so many aspects of the futuristic world that I did not understand and the use of made up words such thicko, veruckt and even shatzie just seemed out of place. And I've already guessed the supposed mystery uncovered by our two heroines from the beginning so the twists are so not surprising.

Verdict: 2 stars.In my Books in a Series and Fantasy Reading Challenge
Available on: Amazon

by Erin Bowman
Hardcover, 360 pages
Published April 16th 2013
by HarperTeen

Summary from Goodreads:

There are no men in Claysoot. There are boys—but every one of them vanishes at midnight on his eighteenth birthday. The ground shakes, the wind howls, a blinding light descends…and he’s gone.
They call it the Heist.

Gray Weathersby’s eighteenth birthday is mere months away, and he’s prepared to meet his fate–until he finds a strange note from his mother and starts to question everything he’s been raised to accept: the Council leaders and their obvious secrets. The Heist itself. And what lies beyond the Wall that surrounds Claysoot–a structure that no one can cross and survive.

Climbing the Wall is suicide, but what comes after the Heist could be worse. Should he sit back and wait to be taken–or risk everything on the hope of the other side?

Thoughts:
Taken is a huge disappointment for me. Normally, I would welcome a male point of view since YA is so overwhelmed with female protagonist. Indeed the mystery of the disappearance of males in Claysoot is solved much earlier than I anticipated so what happened after that just did not excite me at all. It seemed as if Gray is always running from one place to the next just so he get to the bottom of things.

Verdict: 1 star.In my Books in a Series and Fantasy Reading Challenge
Available on: Amazon